Sunday, February 22, 2015

There
were plenty of factors riding against Badlapur.
Director Sriram Raghavan was coming from the failure of Agent Vinod. Varun Dhavan, the star of over the top romantic
comedies was headlining a dark thriller. Ek
Villain, another film with a similar premise of vengeance had just recently
come, made money and gone. That budget was super tight, only movies that cost a
lot of money make a lot of money here.

Much
like the protagonist of this film, Badlapur
renders a brutal wallop to everything going against it, and emerges as the
first truly great movie of the year.

Dhawan
stars as Raghu, a successful ad agency professional in Pune whose life descends
into the pits when his wife (Yami Gautam) and child are killed during a car
hijack. One of the culprits, Liak (Nawaz) is caught and put behind bars, but he
refuses to divulge the identity of the other guy. Raghu cannot accept this -
his mind fractures, and what follows is a crazy revenge trip that is set, aptly
in the town of Badlapur.

Fortunately,
we don’t get a rehash of Ek Villain. What
we do get is the Sriram Raghavan of Ek
Hasina Thi. It is surprising that unlike the trailers this isn’t the bloody
vengeful journey that you expect it to be – it’s a black comedy and character
drama with a small dose of violence. The film zips by from one plot point to
another, as we follow Raghu’s weird path of salvation. Raghavan extracts humor
from apathy, like from Koko (Radhika Apte) a hapless wife willing to offer sex
to a murderer without a moment’s consideration. He also extracts humor from
desperation, like Liak’s bungled attempts at escape from prison. There’s also a
lovely dynamic between Liak and his mother (Pratima Kazmi) that ends in a
subtly heartbreaking way. To have such a nuanced and offbeat film as a
mainstream release is quite a nice change.

At
most times Badlapur feels like
Raghavan set out to take badla and mess with the clichés of the formula and
genre. Meandering romantic sub plots? To hell with that - Raghu just uses and
throws. A thirst for revenge? Too easy, let’s make the hero and the villain
wait for fifteen goddamn years until they actually do anything. No one even
smokes in the film, yet there is persuasive mention of Ganja. The familiar
element of a suitcase full of cash is present, and the plotline is quietly
subverted by the end. What’s more, there’s shades of James Hadley Chase and
Vijay Anand in the mix as well, complete with sex based shock value.

What
works best is that Badlapur is stripped down, crystalline filmmaking. There’s
no room for unnecessary BS nor are there any frills that pander to
commercialization. While Johnny Gaddar
had a dash of pulp in every frame the shots here are simple and beautiful. There’s
no fancy camerawork here – Raghavan composes his scenes at the most basic level
and lets the terrific acting and narrative do the heavy lifting. The visual
resplendence is seen right from the opening scene, a long and meticulously
composed Haneke style take where a woman simply crosses the road, while two
shady folks in the frame do their own thing, until something horrible happens.
It’s the reason why the tagline of the posters is ‘Don’t miss the beginning’.

This
is also violence done right. Raghavan seems to know that if there’s too much gratuitous
brutality from the get go the audience becomes numb to it and the scene that
matters won’t be effective. So the little bit of brutality there is arrives at
a point when you least expect it, and whatever happens in that short burst will
make the hair on your neck stand.

Raghavan
managed to make even Neil Nitin Mukesh seem like a decent actor, and his knack
for getting unheard of performances is on full display here. Varun looks like a
beast, and his presence is felt. Much like Shahid Kapoor in Haider his transformation is memorably messed
up. This is the film that is going to win everyone over and make him a
household name. A bit more work on his delivery would have been perfect though.

Nawaz
is once again effortlessly in top form as the sleazy, film obsessed baddie, and
his chemistry with Huma Qureshi remains intact. Kumud Mishra as a cop is fun,
and really brings the house down in a shouty meltdown scene with Nawaz. Yami
Gautam is fine but she’s played the same role previously in Action Jackson, so hopefully she won’t
be stereotyped as the murdered wife. The cherry on top are the wonderful cameos
from Raghavan regulars Ashwini Kalsekar, Vinay Pathak, Zakir Hussain and Gopal
Singh, the suitcase guy from EHT.

The
question of comparison to Ek Haseena Thi
and Johnny Gaddar is irrelevant. Badlapur is the kind of film we need
more of, and also the kind of film that you need to see more of. It’s in
theaters now, so if you want to see a change in the quality of Bollywood
products, I suggest you get a ticket or two.

The
problem with most desi films is that they’re neither genuinely good, or bad
enough to be entertaining. We get a Dunno
Y Na Jaane Kyun or a One Two Three
every now and then but these gems too few and far in between. Step aside and
make room for MSG – it’s the granddaddy
of them all – the Nazar Suraksha Kawach of these gems. It is not just a film, but
also a crash course on so-bad-it’s-good filmmaking, and a thesis on guilty
pleasure entertainment.

The
story is pretty simple – Saint Gurmeet is the Borat of India. Except that he’s
real, dead serious about how amazing he is and also a rock star. Think
Nithyananda crossed with Aerosmith.

Our Saint,
playing himself, is the alpha male, chick magnet, sports superstar, Grand
Panjadrum and Dear Leader of Dera Sacha Sauda, a religious sect dedicated to
helping helpless people in need of help. People lovingly call him Pitaji and
seek his help by chanting ‘Dhan Dhan Satguru tera hi asra’. The chant works
just like in Captain Planet and
Pitaji proceeds to heal the unhealable, treat the untreatable, rehabilitate
drug and alcohol addicts, rescue prostitutes and get them married, save
poisoned victims’ lives and create wells for destitute farmers. He does all
this using magic, of course. The local drug lord realizes that Pitaji’s
rehabilitating and anti alcohol abilities could quash his business, and the
film is built around his attempts to assassinate Pitaji.

Three
fourths of this three and a half hour film is made up of Pitaji parading around
in outrageous clothes and performing wondrous magic. He also constantly does
things that make MSG a stoner’s paradise – like standing on a lion with flapping
wings, or doing pushups between two buses that are draped in the national flag
colors, or headrocking in a car named ‘We luv Sat Guru’, or shooting electric
laser beams from his forehead. It’s like Saint Gurmeet sat down one night with
his creative team with a kilo of the blue stuff from Breaking Bad.

How
can one make a sword fight more awesome? By turning the incoming flying daggers
into rose petals falling over a smiling Pitaji. How about doing something with
bullets more awesome than The Matrix?
Let’s convert the incoming bullets into a golden Crown for King Pitaji and then
make him whoop the gundas’ gonads. This is the kind of stuff Rajinikanth can
only dream of, and Pitaji chews every ridiculous scene with the smile of a
huggable teddy. Not to mention the truly epic song lyrics like:

Papa the Great, mere papa the great

Bas tum karte ho pyaar

Saari duniya karti hate

The
consistently over the top style of MSG is only buoyed by the absolutely
atrocious acting from pretty much everyone in the film. ‘Guwwwuujeeeee’, a gut
bustingly untalented phoren actress in this desi movie asks, ‘can I make a
documentary on you? Pleeeeeaaaaase? Please Please Please Please’. When Pitaji
replies in the affirmative the girl screams in delight, as Bhangra music plays
and random kids begin celebrating. Only Dev Anand’s last few films commanded
acting, character development and direction as hilariously tacky as the stuff
in this movie.

Behind
the crackpot writing, direction and acting, MSG without a doubt, is a gigantic
advertisement for Dera Sacha Sauda. How dangerous is this, you may ask yourself.
These guys spent tens of crores to promote a controversial cult on a mainstream
level as this great organization that benefits mankind. The Dera has millions
of followers and heaven knows there are people dumb enough to actually believe
all the magical tricks of their Pitaji. Keep your concerns at bay, because it’s
great to have more movies which are bad enough to be fun rather than the ones
that are so bad they’re terrible. Besides, why wouldn’t you want more movies
featuring a Saint, with curly arm hair, in a rainbow costume, playing a guitar
with both hands, while riding a bike, over a swimming pool, in the air, as two female
fans in the pool cheer in awe?

Hilariously,
Saint Gurmeet’s ginormous name is present in every single opening credit of the
movie, sometimes in different lengths. It is reminiscent of the film Jigarthanda, in which a local gangster
forces a filmmaker at gunpoint to make him a superstar. The third act of that
movie is pretty much the story of MSG’s release and now a bridge between satire
and reality.

Why
the film faced any ban is a mystery. You can laugh with the movie, and more so at
the movie. It’s a win win. I reckon the censor board wanted to ban the movie
for being too awesome. There is literally no better way to spend your
valentines day than taking your date to watch the Love Charger.

Ten
minutes into Shamitabh you’ll begin
to realize you’re feeling something that seems almost alien – entertainment. You’ll
be glad that, after what seems like eons, we have a mainstream commercial movie
that actually attempts to render a story that’s unique and original, without
the tacky underpinnings of the products from the genre. If you’re a Big B fan, the
first half of Shamitabh is going to be your LSD.

Danish,
a kid from a village grows up into a perfectly cast Dhanush with dreams of
being an actor. Danish moves to Mumbai and stalks whichever filmmaker he spots,
and begins living secretly in a Vanity Van. When he finally gets a chance to do
a screen test he kills it. The only problem? He’s mute. But this is 2015, and
filmmaking now has tools, like Dubbing. With these tools, even a tool can be a
hero. And as the protagonist mentions, if you’ve got the vocal cords of Amitabh
Bachchan, even a dog can be star. So when Danish comes across Amitabh (Big B),
a washed up drunkard with a glorious baritone, the collaboration reeks of
superstardom. Danish + Amitabh become Shamitabh.

Going
with the theme of the film, Shamitabh
is half a great movie. As you surely have guessed, there’s a ton of Meta in the
film. This is a film about superstardom, starring superstars. It’s about the high
of the rise and the constant threat of the fall, the jealousy, the
disappointment and all the other emotional baggage that comes along with
stardom. In one scene Shamitabh is shooting a movie where his heroine has to
visit the loo, so he builds her a toilet out of snow and the commode becomes a
romantic theme in the song. Yup Shamitabh
is also an unsubtle commentary of the nature of commercial Bollywood.

The
‘conflict’ in director Balki’s previous films Cheeni Kum and Paa were
ham handed to say the least, but this time we have something imaginative. As
Shamitabh becomes a star, his greed starts to eat him inwards, and Amitabh, who
is kept a secret, begins to wonder why he doesn’t get the lion’s share of the
credit. Acting and screen presence is all about the delivery, he growls. To get
you high a bottle of whiskey doesn’t need water, but water does need whiskey.
Even if a whiskey bottle is 43% whiskey and 57% water. He’s a washed out
alcoholic because his voice didn’t suit the industry in the 80’s, so how is it
fair that someone with no screen presence becomes a star because of his voice. Neither
can live without the other, and the ego clashes, the jealous bickering between
the two is fun, as are Amitabh’s drunk philosophical putdowns.

It
seems Balki took the dual nature of his film too seriously, because the second
half of the film crashes and burns. Balki loses the drive and is unsure of what
to do with the characters, so he includes some truly horrendous contrivances to
pad things up.

There
is also a ton of stupidity in the movie, like the eyeroll inducing Finnish sci
fi technology behind getting Amitabh’s voice in Danish’s throat. Other forms of
sci fi include a random Assistant Director (an awkward Akshara Haasan) suddenly
rescuing Danish from being thrown out of film city for stalking, putting him on
a screen test, sending him to Finland, and convincing her director to cast him
in his film as the star. Talk about luck by chance. There’s also an
unintentionally hilarious subplot of a tabloid reporter who realizes the
discrepancy in Shamitabh’s voice and travels to Finland as an investigative
reporter and then blackmails Shamitabh. Not to mention the hundred thousand
product placements crammed into nearly every frame of the film.

If
you were disappointed by the endings of Paa
and Cheeni Kum, prepare to face
something similar. During the closing minutes it becomes clear that Balki
doesn’t know what point to make, so he just abruptly gives up and the credits
roll, leaving you with a mixed bag of emotions.

Fortunately
you’ll still remember the one thing that kept the film going – Bachchan’s
performance. Such style and elegance is seldom seen in cinema. Even when he’s
lying in the dirt, blabbering with a sozzled face, he’s a class act. And it’s
great to see him play a character instead of his own French bearded self. Amitabh
points out that he’s the larger part of the name Shamitabh, and Big B is pretty
much the only significant and memorable part of the film. This might as well
have been called ShaMetabh.

2014 was a pretty good, if not a great year for cinema. Surprisingly,
a few mainstream films like The Lego Movie, Captain America 2, Edge of Tomorrow and Dawn of the
Apes turned out to be really great. The trusty old auteurs too hit gold with The Grand Budapest Hotel, Gone Girl and Boyhood.

Since
the Oscars only tell you who the best dressed celebrity was, and not which the
best films were, I take this opportunity to give you 40 of the best
movies of 2014:

40 - CITIZENFOUR

The Edward Snowden documentary by Laura Poitras was not just revelatory but also a deeply incisive and upsetting look at the how the NSA spying drama unfolded. The footage itself is explosive, but how she managed to capture it for the film will blow you away.

39 - Coherence

Yet another example that proves one can make a tremendous
movie even with frightfully tiny budgets. A comet passes by on a dark night,
and a group of friends dining in a house discover another house down the road
that has clones of themselves. Trippy and imaginative stuff.

38 - IN FEAR

Couple goes on a road trip towards a romantic getaway. They
get lost. Shit happens. A clichéd plot executed with incredible freshness and a
chilly as fuck atmosphere. Directed by Jeremy Lovering, who helmed the Sherlock
episode ‘The Empty Hearse’.

37 - I Origins

Mike Cahill followed up ‘Another Earth’ with another sci fi
indie featuring Brit Marling and a much greater ambition. The film delves into the
fine line linking science and religion, but enveloping the philosophical mumbo
jumbo is an incredible well-made and moving love story between Michael Pitt and
Astrid Berges Frisbey.

36 - THE ROVER

Aussie filmmaker David Michod’s follow up to Animal Kingdom isn’t as great but is
definitely an excellent post apocalyptic thriller featuring a career best
performance from Guy Pearce.

35 - LIFE ITSELF

Ebert made it look easy. His biography showed how complex it
was. It’s pretty much a go-to movie for anyone who writes about cinema, or even
digs cinema with all his heart.

34 - IVORY TOWER

Andrew Rossi’s documentary takes an introspective gander at
one of the most important subjects of modern America – the exorbitant college
fees that forces students to repay loans over 15-20 years. It’s depressing to
know the extent of the system where most kids either don’t receive higher
education or are forever struggling with debt, and to see it affecting the economy
of the entire world.

33 - CALVARY

The
new Irish film by The Guard director
John Michael McDonagh is a gorgeous dark drama with heavy-duty existential
themes executed with dry British humor. Brendon Gleeson, who plays a priest
facing an imminent death lost out on an acting nomination.

32 - HOUSEBOUND

A throwback to Peter Jackson’s disgustingly hilarious horror
comedies from the 90’s, this Aussie movie delivered by the truckloads in scares
and laughs. The ’reveal’ in the movie has got to be one of the most fun mystery
unravels in recent cinema.

31 - WHY DON’T YOU PLAY IN HELL

If
you thought Birdman was a great meta
film about the film industry, Sion Sono’s new movie dips the theme in some acid
and splashes it on your face. It’s surreal, crazy, hilariously over the top and
very entertaining. It’s also a little less fucked up than Sono’s general
output.

30 - THE CANAL

A dark, dark psychological horror murder mystery with even
darker mood and atmosphere. Keeps you guessing until the very end, and even
though the payoff polarizes viewers, the journey is terrific. And yes, it’s scary
too.

29 - SNOWPIERCER

The
Weinsteins clearly had a bone to pick with director Bong Joon Ho. Not only did
this excellent film not get a wide theatrical release, but it also didn’t
receive any push in the awards circuit. It’s a pity that Chris Evans delivered
the best performance of his career as an antihero in this movie and he’ll still
be known as Captain America.

28 - WEB JUNKIE

Web
Junkie had very interesting subject matter – the film shed a light on Internet
Rehabs in China. Teenagers who perceivably spend too much time on their
computers are forcibly sent to these military camps and are subjected to brutal
psychological and personality shakeups. It’s kind of a horror movie because it
makes you ponder over how you’d deal with an internet addict child, if you
think brute force is an unfair option.

27 - FRANK

Director Lenny Abrahamson’s film chronicles the bizarre real
life story of musician Chris Sievy (played by Michael Fassbender) who wears a
large mask and turns into an alter ego named Frank Sidebottom. The film
co-stars Domhnall Gleeson, Maggie Gyllenhaal and Scoot McNairy and is a funny
and bittersweet debate on an artist’s insecurity, and dependence of someone
other than himself to find his artistic inspiration.

26 - THE RAID 2

This.. well.. it kicked a lot of ass.

25 - WILD TALES

Packed with six shorts connected with the singular theme of
revenge, this Argentinian film is darkly hilarious and enormously entertaining
stuff. It’s also not often that we see six short stories by the same filmmaker
presented as film.

24 - ONLY LOVERS LEFT ALIVE

Jim Jarmusch
mixes up the vampire genre with Tom Hiddleston and Tilda Swinton as a vampiric
couple with existential problems. Jarmusch wonderfully subverts the nature of
cinema vampires by making them a bored couple tired of living forever and
staying hidden from the rest of the world. The monotony of constantly searching
for blood without alerting the cops, and the humdrum nature of being in love
forever is explored to smashing effect.

23 - CLOUDS OF SILS MARIA

The
passage of time in the film industry has seldom been captured in cinema and
director Oliver Assayas does this beautifully in Clouds of Sils Maria. This is yet another meta Hollywood film,
where Juliette Binoche plays an ageing superstar coming to terms with a younger
starlet taking her place. Like Birdman,
this film also transitions in and out of reality, and it also takes digs at
snooty celebrities, and is also crowd pleasingly fantastic.

The folks behind 2013’s surprise You’re Next up the ante in narrative, humor and genre parodying.
Dan Stevens is fun as the mysterious 80’s antihero on the run.

20 - PREDESTINATION

Perhaps
the most underrated movie of the year, Predestination
has a tremendous script that puts a new spin on the time travel genre.
Writer-directors Peter and Michael Spierig explore the predestination paradox
to great effect and make Looper look
simplistic. The film also signaled the arrival of a major talent in the form of
Sarah Snook.

19 - TWO DAYS ONE NIGHT

The Dardennes never disappoint, and with Marion Cotillard in
a stripped down, unglamorous role they make it even easier for us to love them.

What if you found a guy in a bar who offers you ridiculous amounts of money to indulge in the most bizarre challenges? How far towards depravity would you go when the chips are down? Do you really care about right and wrong when defecating in your neighbors house gives you one thousand dollars? Debutant director EL Katz answers all your sickening queries in this pitch black, hilarious, and audacious horror comedy.

16 - WHIPLASH

If you haven’t seen this yet, you’re most definitely dragging, when you should be rushing.

15 - BIRDMAN

What do we talk about when we talk about love?

14 - JODOROWSKY’S DUNE

What
if every science fiction film you’ve seen since the 80’s was based on a project
that never got made? And the director of said project faded into depression and
oblivion because his dream was shattered? Director Frank Pavinch whips out a
revelatory, moving film about the forgotten legend that is Jororowsky. It’s poetic
injustice that the Academy failed to greenlight even this movie.

13 - ENEMY

Denis
Villeneuve’s takedown of the human condition explained with baby spiders being
crushed to death by strippers. Difficult to decipher, but easy to fall in love
with.

12 - THE DOUBLE

Another
takedown of the human condition, but this one did it with the metaphor of
office space, the choice of good vs evil, and an elegant rendering of
existentialist angst in society. Not to mention it was hilarious and absolutely
gorgeous to look at.

11 - A GIRL WALKS HOME ALONE AT NIGHT

Yet
another fresh spin on the vampire genre, Iranian-American Ana Lily Amirpour’s
part noir, part horror, part drama, part romance, part expressionist art, part
comedy, part thriller, part western, part social commentary is one smooth,
seriously gorgeous, black and white, sinfully entertaining package. If there
was an Oscar for the best on screen kiss this would win it, because a stunning
electronic music based five minute slow mo take preceeds the lip lock.

10 - 71

A soldier stuck alone in the midst of a raging war. Fighting
for survival. Bullets, bombs and blood. It’s been done before, but never in
such a brutally beautiful fashion. Special mention to David Holmes’ minimalist
electronic music that intensifies the tension to unexpected levels.

9 - NIGHTCRAWLER

Michael Keaton will walk away with the acting trophy, but although he was terrific, he had nothing on Jake Gyllenhaal in Nightcrawler. It’s not often that an actor completely disappears into his character. And it’s very rare that a movie character scares you and makes you laugh nervously. Gyllenhaal was the devil incarnate, and he was me and you, and he probably didn’t get nominated because he was the voters too.

8 - BARF

Mehdi Rahmani’s stunning writing and direction showcases why Iranian cinema is regarded so highly. The film, set entirely inside a dysfunctional Iranian house weaves through themes of abandonment and social responsibilities, often veering between laugh-out-loud comedy and bitterness.

7 - GETT: THE TRIAL OF VIVIANNE AMSALEM

The Israeli French drama produced the single most stunning female acting performance from Ronit Elkabetz as a woman who is desperate to divorce her husband in a patriarchal kingdom of Israel. Elkabetz also co-directed the equally hilarious and heartbreaking film, it did manage to come under the Oscar radar but lost out in the penultimate round.

6 - MOMMY

Xavier
Dolan knocks you in the face with his powerful story of a single mother and her
tumultuous relationship with her son, played to pulsating manic energy by
Antoine Oliver Pilon. The scene when Pilon tears the cinema frame, or the one
where he whirls a shopping cart around in a parking lot, repeatedly kicking and
screaming ‘Who’s your daddy’ should have been enough to score a bunch of awards.

5 - BLUE RUIN

With
razor sharp pacing, a smart script, and a fantastic cast of newcomers, director
Jeremy Saulnier’s film represents the best the thriller genre has to offer. The
film takes familiar elements of a revenge story and approaches it with less
emphasis on the sensational and more on the moody and surreal atmosphere of
vengeance.

4 - FORCE MAJEURE

Swedish
filmmaker Ruben Ostlund’s gorgeous film makes you question the accepted
definition of the ‘man of the family’, and the divide between cowardice and
survival instinct. It’s possibly the biggest upset at the Oscars, and aptly
Ostlund, going with the theme of the film even made a viral video of himself
and his producer watching the Oscar nominations and facing bitter rejection.

3 - STARRED UP

David
McKenzie’s ferocious and uncompromising prison drama boasts the most explosive
acting performance of the year from Jack O Connell as a volatile underage
inmate hauled up in jail. Apart from O Connell Ben Mendelsohn lost out a
supporting actor nom as the estranged father trying to make amends with his
newly arrested prison mate son.

2 - THE INTERNET’S OWN BOY

The
most important and significant story of 2014, Brian Knappenberger’s film
chronicled the rise and the tragic murder of Aaron Schwartz, the kid responsible
for some of the internet’s most iconic applications. The film brings you the hypocrisy
of privacy laws in the US, along with the accompanying corporate bent and
capitalist agenda. Depressing, but vastly brilliant.

1 - WHAT WE DO IN THE SHADOWS

A
New Zealand comedy about a bunch of vampires living as roommates, bickering
about each other, and having catfights with Werewolves. The single most
hilarious movie of the year, and also the best. Directors Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi have arrived in a big way.